Pelosi - "why should they [the supreme court] have lower ethical standards than members of congress …”, as if congress has ethical standards.

The contradiction between her animated fist-raising performance implying that saving the planet is the object, while supporting further mineral extraction through the defense production act takes the cake.

After all that I couldn’t subject myself to listening to the other two.

Give Sam a hug and kiss from me.

forgotten what immediately preceded Putin demanding payment in Rubles for Russian energy resources? Biden&Co freezing BILLIONS in assets and the imposition of significant sanctions, the arming and training of Ukraine militants and neo Nazis as a proxy force sitting on Russias border, several US run biohazard labs by the dozens and lobbying for an expansion of NATO were all precursor events leading to Putin’s military move to secure its borders.

This is actually Biden’s price hike at the pump, part of a last gasp effort to prevent the implosion of capitalism by controlling energy, ruling the entire planet and global economy. Hubris writ large.

The US has been the bully on the world playground for decades. Payback could be a bitch.

Take note that Putin consistently says what he means and means what he says....

President Putin’s Full Remarks at the Oil for Ruble announcement
April 01, 2022
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The full address is worth taking a look at, as Mr Putin in no uncertain terms told the west and Europe what they are doing. I caution that this is a machine translation, so, fine parsing of words may not be productive. This is the gist of what Mr Putin said.
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Today I have signed an Executive Order that establishes the rules for trade in Russian natural gas with so-called unfriendly states. We offer counterparties from such countries a clear and transparent scheme. To purchase Russian natural gas, they must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payment will be made for gas delivered starting tomorrow, from April 1 of this year.If such payments are not made, we will consider it a failure to fulfill obligations on the part of buyers – with all the ensuing consequences. No one sells anything to us for free, and we’re not going to do charity either. That is, existing contracts will be stopped.

I would like to stress once again that in a situation where the financial system of Western countries is used as a weapon, when companies from these states refuse to fulfill contracts with Russian banks, enterprises, individuals, when assets in dollars and euros are frozen, it makes no sense to use the currencies of these countries.

In fact, what’s going on, what’s already happened? We supplied European consumers with our resources, in this case gas, and they received it, paid us in euros, which they then froze themselves. In this regard, there is every reason to believe that we have supplied part of the gas supplied to Europe virtually free of charge.
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I emphasize that these prices are several times lower than the current quotes on the spot market. What does that mean? Simply put, Russian gas is cheaper energy, heat, light in the homes of Europeans, an affordable cost of fertilizers for European farmers, and therefore, food in the end. Finally, this is the competitiveness of European enterprises, and hence the salaries of Europeans, citizens of European countries.

However, judging by the statements of some politicians, they are ready to neglect the interests of their citizens, if only to please their overseas master, the suzerain. Some kind of populism inside out: people are encouraged to eat less, dress warmer to save on heating, refuse to travel – and all this supposedly for the benefit of those people from whom these voluntary deprivations are demanded for the sake of abstract North Atlantic solidarity.

Such dubious approaches and actions in economic, energy, food policy on the part of Western countries have been observed for more than a year.
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Naturally, the question arises: who is responsible for this? Who will be responsible for this?

It is clear that the United States will again try to solve its problems – namely its own problems – at someone else’s expense, including launching a new wave of emissions and budget deficits. It has already grown exorbitantly, and in the leading European economies the record is broken by inflation, and in the United States. And at the same time, they are trying to blame their mistakes in economic policy on us, they are always looking for someone to blame. It’s pretty obvious, we’re seeing it.

I would like to add that the United States will try to capitalize on the current global instability, as it did during the First and Second World Wars, during its aggressions against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria and so on. Global markets are falling, and the value of shares of companies of the American military-industrial complex is only growing. Capital is flowing into the U.S., depriving other regions of the world of development resources.
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What do I consider important to note here and I ask you to draw the attention of all colleagues to this? Considering the situation in each specific industry, sphere, it is necessary to focus not only on overcoming the challenges of the current year, but also to build long-term development plans based on the internal capabilities of our economy, Russian science and education system. We must rely primarily on private business initiative and healthy competition, strive to maximize the load of our enterprises, create new competencies and increase Russia’s global competitiveness as a whole.

At the same time, the key indicators of the effectiveness of economic policy for us should be the preservation and creation of jobs, the reduction of poverty and inequality, improving the quality of people’s lives, the availability of goods and services. It is with these requirements in mind that we discussed the situation in the construction and housing sector last week.